Those who think the fire department was right, you're in good company: American Family Association

[WillParkinson]

Quote Of The Day - Bryan Fischer

"The fire department did the right and Christian thing. The right thing, by the way, is also the Christian thing, because there can be no difference between the two. The right thing to do will always be the Christian thing to do, and the Christian thing to do will always be the right thing to do. If I somehow think the right thing to do is not the Christian thing to do, then I am either confused about what is right or confused about Christianity, or both.

"In this case, critics of the fire department are confused both about right and wrong and about Christianity. And it is because they have fallen prey to a weakened, feminized version of Christianity that is only about softer virtues such as compassion and not in any part about the muscular Christian virtues of individual responsibility and accountability." - American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer on the Tennessee fire department that watched a family's house burn to the ground because they had not paid the annual $75 fire protection fee.

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/10/quote-of-day-bryan-fischer.html

[Zoeisright]

1. "Muscular Christian values"???? What a crock.

I suppose their Jesus is ripped and lifts weights. What a bunch of assholes.

[Amonester]

45. These yahoos can't stop wanting to be the laughing stock of the world

They just can't live without it. :rofl:

[Uncle Joe]

2. I haven't posted or even read much of any fire thread yet, but did the owner ask the fire dept. to

put the fire out?

Thanks for the thread, WillParkinson.

[JuniperLea]

4. Yes

And he was willing to pay the fee and/or the cost of fighting the fire.

[Scout]

7. yes, after having neglected to pay the fee required of every county

resident, when his grandson was irresponsibly burning trash in the back yard, a fire started. they called the fire department and were informed that they were not entitled to the service as they had not paid for it.

when a neighbor's property was threatened, they called the fire dept and since they HAD paid the required fee, the fire department came. that's when the bozo under discussion asked them to put out the fire.

he gambled and lost.

edited subject line to make sense

[SargeUNN]

12. again another post that leaves out some details

so let me be more responsible and give those details.
The man called and said he would be willing to pay not only the fee but any other price they asked. A neighbor even offered to pay but was refused. So it comes down to we don't care if you lose everything we want our $75. Real high moral values isn't it? Why not put the fire out and have the guy charged fines for his failure to meet the fee instead of putting this family through this? I honestly don't see how anyone who calls themselves a christian can justify this cruel hearted reaction, and how can anyone who cares about welfare of others justify putting this family through such hell when so many different avenues far more cost effective and decent could have been used. Anyone who supports this decision certainly I have yet to see nor do I expect to see any rational explanation of this and find anyone who supports this as disturbing in their low threshold of what human decency is.

[Scout]

41. all your supposed details that i left out have been addressed

ad nauseum. billing people AFTER the fact does not work. if they don't have to pay up front, and only have to pay if their house is actually on fire, then the fire department has no funding.

your simple minded spew in your post is just that, spew.

i don't call myself a christian, i would not want to be one of those.

[Clovis Sangrail]

42. it doesn't really matter that he offered to pay it once his house was on fire

The point is these idiots (the community) decided that fire protection was something that should be opt in and THEN this particular asshat decided he wasn't going to pay for it.
It's like trying to get auto insurance after you just plowed into somebody's brand new Mercedes.

This just proves that "socialist" services like fire protection are something that everybody should pay for ... whether they want to or not.
Opt in fire protection is insanely stupid ... but the fact that this guy opted out to save a few bucks means I have 0 sympathy for him.

[joe black]

54. I will add...

How can anyome on this site who calls himself a Democrat think it was ok for the FD to allow the house to burn down.

[Uncle Joe]

16. "He gambled and lost," then regarding the OP's take on Christianity, this parable by Jesus

seems to apply.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Prodigal_Son

The parable begins with a young man, the younger of two sons, who asks his father to give him his share of the estate. The parable continues by describing how the younger son travels to a distant country and wastes all his money in wild living. When a famine strikes, he becomes desperately poor and is forced to take work as a swineherd. When he reaches the point of envying the pigs he is looking after, he finally comes to his senses:

But when he came to himself he said, "How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough to spare, and I'm dying with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.'"

He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

– Luke 15:17-20, World English Bible

The son does not even have time to finish his rehearsed speech, since the father calls for his servants to dress him in a fine robe, a ring, and sandals, and slaughter the "fattened calf" for a celebratory meal. The older son, who was at work in the fields, hears the sound of celebration, and is told about the return of his younger brother. He is not impressed, and becomes angry:

But he answered his father, "Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him."

– Luke 15:29-30, World English Bible

The parable concludes with the father explaining that because the younger son had returned, in a sense, from the dead, celebration was necessary:

"But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found."

[fishbulb703]

21. And offered to pay the fee, but the FD was ABSOLUTELY RIGHT

The chief put it best, basically saying that if the city permitted on the spot fee payment then the only people who would pay would be the ones who's houses are burning down. If you live in an area that doesn't have municipal fire coverage, and the nearby city asks you to pay 75 dollars a year to cover your farm, then if you don't pay it you shouldn't expect the professional firefighters to put it out. I would be more angry at neighbors who wouldn't help.

[Uncle Joe]

28. Surely there must be a middle ground in there somewhere.

1. I don't imagine everyone would avoid paying the fee unless their home was burning.

2. The FD could charge extra premiums on top of cost involved in putting out a non-payer's fire, ie: a $500 penalty.

As for the neighbors, there may not be enough nearby to make any appreciable difference, but I do believe they should help as well, just from a Golden Rule Perspective.

[fishbulb703]

29. The penalty fee is a good idea, but how to enforce? signing papers when your house is burning?

The city can't force county residents to pay diddly. Maybe a cash-only alternative, and farmers can keep a stash in case their house goes ablaze. I just think its disrespectful to not pay a tiny city a tiny fee for protecting a huge county, and a willful statement that the city's fire services are not respected or wanted on the owners land.

[Uncle Joe]

31. How about a judgment, lien or garnishment of wages?

The city can force county residents to pay diddly if they get the county government on board as well, I would imagine it would be in the interest of both parties to work out such a deal.

If the county can't afford it's own fire protection, their residents would benefit from an insurance and property appreciation standpoint if a nearby city could jump in to offer protection.

So a rural or impoverished county would be representing the best interests of it's people if they cut such a deal with a nearby city government.

[fishbulb703]

36. Check out the background behind this county. Poor town with libertarian county farmers.

[Uncle Joe]

39. That makes no difference if the city and county can work out a reasonable solution.

If those "libertarian" county farmers are so adamant about not paying for fire protection, they could just sign a document stating they want no fire protection in case their homes catch on fire.

I believe most of them would elect to pay the premium instead even if it included an additional fine for any fire put out by the FD whereby the owner had failed to pay his/her premium.

The city and county should be able to work such a deal out, if they're truly motivated in representing the best interests of their constituents.

[Scout]

3. blah blah blah blah blah blah blah n/t

[JuniperLea]

5. Whatsoever you do for these the lesser of my brothers, you do for me. - JC

Hmmm.... I see a conflict.

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

8. I was just about to say that Myself

I don't know who the Wildmons think they represent, but it certainly is not Me or My Dad.

[JuniperLea]

19. Haysoos! Good to see you, Man!

Love your rock opera, especially the cast with Ian Gillan, the dude from Deep Purple.

So, what's the buzz, tell me whats a happening!

:D

[grantcart]

23. Your not posting from Salt Lake City are you?

That would be a real problem for me.

[treestar]

27. His profile says from New Jerusalem, Heaven

So no worries there! :rofl:

[Number23]

43. You win today's "Headscratchingest Post of the Day" award

:thumbsup:

[Cirque du So-What]

6. Right do Christian right christian do do right

Sounds similar to the circular logic used by some to justify allowing a house to burn.

[tularetom]

9. A weakened feminized version of Christianity - WTF does that even mean?

Compassion? Fuck that. It's for sissies.

Real men want to se people suffer.

:rofl: I think Mr Fischer has a tiny peepee.

[Zephie]

10. Rec'd but still at 0. =(

Kick anyway.

[HuckleB]

11. 77...

[EnlightenedOne]

13. I'm having a hard time telling the christians apart

from the corporatist thieves - but then, there have always been the money changers and the snake oil salesmen.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

14. Congratulations! You use the same mealy mouthed arguments as the AFA and their ilk.

[Fumesucker]

15. Proudly unrecced..

[Behind the Aegis]

17. Those who are vegetarians, you're in good company: Adolph Hitler.

:eyes:

[TexasObserver]

49. Accusing the city manager of being a vegetarian is just wrong.

[G_j]

18. muscular Christian virtues of individual responsibility and accountability

this people are dangerous.

EOM

[Little Star]

What a whack job this guy is!

Well color me insulted!! I didn't even know that softer virtues such as compassion are feminized and individual responsibility and accountability are muscular virtues.

Well this woman says go fuck your self Bryan Fischer! He pissed me off!

[Greyhound]

20. Oh they don't like to hear this, do they? n/t

[wtmusic]

22. Supply-side Jesus wouldn't have put out the fire.

[cynatnite]

24. Glenn Beck is an ally, too. nt

[Matariki]

25. Wow. Really wow. Who would Jesus rape and kill?

Who's throat would Buddha shit down? Who would Gandhi bitch slap?

There are really no words for that sort of revisionism. Campassion == "weakened, feminized version of Christianity"?

Seriously. That man needs help.

[KittyWampus]

26. Not really deary. AFA are dupes of those who want to kill off government services and eliminate

taxes except those that can be siphoned off to the wealthiest elite.

[hayu_lol]

30. These religious freaks...

will take advantage of any situation at all to gain attention.

[NanceGreggs]

32. Jesus wept. n/t

[joeybee12]

33. Proudly recced...it's still at zero...WTF is wrong with some people here?

[Pithlet]

34. Yeah, why don't people like their position grossly mis characterized. What's wrong with them? n/t

[Scout]

40. +10,000 n/t

[TexasObserver]

47. It's the "new progressive." You can be one without being compassionate!

The GOP has the "Tea Party" on its flank.

We have the "Me Party" on our flank.

[TexasObserver]

35. What would Jesus do? Say "burn it down!"

Thank God I am not in the same camp with the fringe right of Christianity!

[petronius]

37. That's a pretty compelling point you've made, but you know what would be stronger?

You should totally google something like "FD was wrong" and post how many hits you get - that would really show people...

[TexasObserver]

38. Who would unrecommend this thread?!

Words of consternation! Personal outrage! Grrrrrr.

It had to be done.

[neverforget]

44. Because Jesus would let it burn.

[LiberalAndProud]

46. You know, I support the FD in this fiasco, but I don't agree with a word that Fischer said.

Isn't that odd?

The reprehensible thing is not that Mr. Cranick failed to pay $75.00 and as a consequence, his house burned down. I'm sorry that Mr. Cranick wasn't gifted with foresight and common sense, but I don't call him out for it.

The awful thing, the horrendous thing, the monstrous thing, is that the society surrounding him tolerates it (and I'm not talking about the fire fighters here). Personal responsibility shouldn't be a part of the equation. We should be talking about our responsibility as society and community to provide for the health and welfare of ourselves and our fellow citizens.

[Honeycombe8]

48. Religion actually has nothing to do with that situation. It's a governmental & legal issue. nt

[B Calm]

50. So this is what you have to think to be a christian now days. . .

[bvar22]

51. Happy to K&R.

We do NOT let homes burn.
Period.
Because that is the right thing to do.

[Tsiyu]

52. "a weakened, feminized version of Christianity "

Note how "weak" and "feminine" are lashed together here.

That's how you know them...the American Taliban - when they start demonizing women and/or LGBT people.


Here, we see that the human traits of compassion, empathy, generosity, community benevolance and kindness are evil, sinful and un-Christian. :huh: ????

I will be the un-Christian then, thank you, and use my strong femininity to help my brothers and sisters in this life, not to worship or promote some bully gawd.

[Hosnon]

53. Wow - kudos to this guy for being insane enough to try to twist this into a Christian value. nt.